Jan 17, 2017
As Christians, we know from verses like Hebrews 9:12 that by the shedding of His own blood, Jesus Christ accomplished redemption for us. By believing in His redemption, we are saved. All our sins are forgiven because Jesus shed His blood for us.
But what about after we’re saved? How is the blood of Jesus applicable to us in our Christian life?
These questions are tremendously important for our Christian life. We need to know what Christ’s blood means for us every day after our initial salvation. We need to see we’re not only cleansed by the blood of Jesus at our salvation, but also cleansed from sins even after that, so that we can maintain and enjoy our fellowship with Christ every day.
Because Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, shed His blood for us, we can be forgiven of our sins. We can see the extent of this forgiveness and the effectiveness of His blood in the Bible.
God separates us from our sins by an immeasurable distance. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
God not only forgives us of our sins, He forgets them. Hebrews 8:12 says, “For I will be propitious to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins I shall by no means remember anymore.”
According to Hebrews 9:14, our conscience is cleansed so thoroughly that we can be those who serve God: “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
These are just a few of many verses on the blood of Jesus that give us an idea of its incredible power.
How does the power of Christ’s blood affect our Christian life?
Once we receive Christ as our Savior, we are eternally saved. Nothing can change that. We are washed and all our sins are forgiven. But what about the sins we commit after we’re saved?
Our sins cause us to lose our enjoyment of the Lord. They become a barrier between us and Him, a frustration to our fellowship with Him. This is why we still need to apply the blood of Jesus daily, actively, in our present situations.
First John 1:9, a verse written to Christians, tells us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
In order for us to experience the forgiveness and cleansing mentioned in this verse, we simply need to confess our sins to the Lord. Immediately, they are taken immeasurably far away from us, God forgets them, and even our conscience is purified—all because of the power and effectiveness of the blood of Jesus. What’s required of us is that we confess our sins to the Lord and admit to Him that we sinned against Him.
What if we still feel guilty?
The blood of Jesus is powerful and effective in three important directions, which we spoke about in a previous podcast. The trouble is that sometimes, even after we’ve confessed a sin, we still feel guilty. We wonder, Has God really forgiven me? Was my confession thorough enough? Was my sin so bad that the blood can’t wash it away?
The problem is neither with our confession nor with Christ’s blood. It’s with our believing. God forgave us when we confessed and even forgot that sin. But we ourselves have trouble forgetting. We keep remembering it and thinking about it. We just don’t feel forgiven. We may even confess the same sin over and over, looking for a feeling to convince us that we’re forgiven.
In such a state, we become preoccupied with our sins rather than with Christ. We think we cannot come to Him, pray to Him, or fellowship with Him.
We get into such difficulties when we believe our feelings more than we believe in the power of the blood of Jesus. We must remember that Christ’s blood is able to cleanse us from every sin, any sin, that we confess to the Lord. We must believe that what He has said is true, that He is faithful and righteous to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The blood of Jesus wipes out our sins so thoroughly that God not only forgives them, He forgets them. This is the actual fact. We should forget what God has already forgotten.
What we feel or don’t feel isn’t always a reliable gauge of what is actually the case, especially in spiritual matters. One minute our feelings are up, and the next they’re down. Instead of relying on our fickle feelings, we must rely on faith. We need to learn to go deeper than our feelings to our spirit, and to strengthen our faith in the power of Jesus’ blood.
One way to strengthen our faith is to strongly declare the facts in God’s Word. When we doubt the power of Christ’s blood to cleanse us from a particular sin, we can exercise our spirit of faith to speak aloud, strongly, any of the verses mentioned in this podcast. This kind of speaking of the Word of God with our spirit helps to strengthen us deep within, subdue our feelings, and stand on the facts in God’s Word.
We can also pray God’s promises back to Him. We can read 1 John 1:9, for example, and pray to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, thank You for Your precious blood. It is so powerful that it cleanses away my sins. Lord, I have sinned many times, but You said that when I confess, You will wash away my sins. Thank You, Lord, You are faithful to do this every time! Lord Jesus, Your blood washes me from every sin and cleanses me from all unrighteousness.”
We don’t need to waste time in our bad feelings or doubting thoughts. Christ’s blood is so powerful! And we have God’s Word that tells us so. When we sin, we simply need to confess our sin to the Lord and believe in God’s Word to enjoy the effective power of the blood of Jesus in our daily lives. By this, we can continue to enjoy Christ as life in our spirit and maintain our fellowship with Him.